The present invention relates to disposable pants-type wearing articles suitably used in the form of disposable diaper, training pants, adult pants for incontinence or the like. The present application is based on, and claims priority from, Japanese Application Serial Number 2003-114400, filed Apr. 18, 2003, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
In disposable wearing articles such as disposable diapers including a rectangular body fluid absorbent panel, it is well known to fold transversely opposite sectors of the panel inwardly of the panel in a crotch region and thereby to form a pair of folded portions.
For example, in a diaper disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 1972-36734A (Citation 1), the rectangular panel-like chassis has folded portions in a crotch region and each of these folded portions is symmetrically formed about a crossline bisecting a longitudinal dimension of the chassis. In other words, each of the folded portions is formed so as to be symmetric in a back-and-forth direction of the diaper.
A diaper disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 1975-33044A (Citation 2) also is formed with the folded portions. These folded portions are formed by folding a rectangular body fluid absorbent panel-like material along a transverse center line and the lines radially extending from a midpoint of this transverse center line so that an inner surface of the diaper which are opposed to itself in these folded portions may be partially bonded together. The folded portions in this diaper also are symmetric about the transverse center line, in other words, as viewed in a back-and-forth direction of the diaper.
A pants-type wearing article disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-10244A (Citation 3) is adapted to be used in the form of disposable pants-type diaper or the like and includes a rectangular body fluid absorbent panel normally curved in U-shape and extending over a crotch region and further into front and rear waist regions. This panel also is provided in a crotch region with a pair of folded portions formed by folding the panel along a panel crossing line extending across a bottom of the pants-type wearing article and lines radially extending from a midpoint of a crossing line to transversely opposite side edges of the panel. In this wearing article also, each of these folded portions is symmetrically formed about the crossing line, in other words, symmetrically formed as viewed in a back-and-forth direction of the wearing article.
In every wearing article disclosed in Citations 1, 2 and 3, the folded portions of the panel in the crotch region function to locally reduce the width of the panel and, at the same time, function as the pockets adapted to contain bodily discharges.
It is common to the disclosures of Citations 1, 2 and 3 that the folded portions of the body fluid absorbent panel are symmetric as viewed in the back-and-forth direction of the diaper and the body fluid absorbent panel after the formation of these folded portions is also substantially symmetric as viewed in the back-and-forth direction of the diaper. The panels are destined to cover the wearer's back side with a rear zone of the panel extending behind the folded portions and to cover the wearer's belly side with the front zone of the panel extending in front of the folded portions. However, if the panel is dimensioned to be sufficiently wide to cover the wearer's hip with the rear zone of the panel in leakage-free fashion, the front zone of such wide panel will obstruct free movement of the wearer's legs. On the other hand, if the panel is dimensioned to be sufficiently narrow to avoid an anxiety that the front zone of the panel might obstruct free movement of the wearer's legs, the absorbing capacity of the panel in the vicinity of the wearer's hip will be insufficient to avoid leakage of body fluids.